It is another pre-season at Manchester United with a new manager leading a reset, and with the fans hoping that the club would eventually succeed in the quest to return to relevance at the top end of the league. Erik Ten Haag is the fourth substantive manager since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement after a title-winning season back in 2013. He is the "new sheriff", who is hoping to use the optimism that usually surrounds the club after a good pre-season as a catalyst for systematic progress both in the short and long term. The Red Devils have won three out of three preseason games so far with stellar performances to boot.
Ten Haag looks poised to imbibe in his players, some of the core values that have since been eroded from the team over the past years - commitment, discipline, pride, honor, and most importantly, winning mentality, which are all baselines of the great Manchester United teams.
Credit must be given to the Dutch tactician for how he has succinctly dealt with questions in his match pressers. He has decided to stick with Harry Maguire as captain, which should be considered a clever decision. He has also voiced his desire to work with Cristiano Ronaldo, even though the five-time Balon d'Or winner does not seem convinced and appears to be engineering a move away from Old Trafford barely a year on from his return last summer.
Whilst there are plenty of reasons for United fans to be optimistic about what lies ahead, the question marks lingering over some personnel decisions need to be looked into. The first and most obvious one is Ronaldo's future. The former Ajax boss has made it clear that he intends to build a team around Ronaldo. Whether Ten Haag can find a system that suits the Portuguese talisman, and how well the team would be able to defend against a high line will go a long way in defining Manchester United's season. Although supporters hit back by simply pointing to Ronaldo's 24 goals last season, they cannot shake off the skepticism about Ronaldo's contributions or lack of it to the defensive organization of the team. It is looking interesting that Europe's top clubs are not appearing to beat one another up for the seemingly dissatisfied superstar. If Ronaldo stays on at United and under a heavily methodological and circuit-based manager, it would be interesting to see how far the cords of flexibility on rules, team shape, and individual contributions can be stretched to both serve Ronaldo's insatiable desire for personal success and the team's collective goal for competitiveness and progression.
Another glaring issue readily throws up the question: how does Ten Haag intend to solve the conundrum regarding the 'no 6' role? A deal was said to have been agreed upon for Frenkie De Jong to arrive from Barcelona, but the outstanding wages owed the Dutchman by the Blaugrana hierarchy remain a stumbling block. What happens if no deal is eventually completed? Even if the deal is completed, considering the enormity of the myriad of issues encountered by the Red Devils in the middle of the park last season, there is a need for Erik Ten Haag to find someone to make recovery runs and protect the team when defending against transitions. In essence, Ten Haag has to find a midfield enforcer. There is a gaping need for balance and neither Scott Mctominay nor Fred looks like the long-term solutions.
Rome wasn't built in a day. Surely, Ten Haag cannot turn United into a near-perfect side overnight. An uphill task awaits them next season as their rivals have taken significant steps to cut the gap to Man City and Liverpool.
The road ahead of Erik Ten Haag and United is a long, bumpy, and likely unforgiving one. Getting United back into the Champions League looks much harder than ever. It remains to be seen if Erik Ten Hag can do better than some of his predecessors.
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